Tour de France 2013

The 100th editition of the race starts tomorrow with the team presentation and the racing begins this weekend in Corsica. Teams and riders are starting to arrive with boatloads of bikes arriving on the overnight ferries. The neverending doping stories diminish the allure a bit, but the real beauty of the race is in the wide range of stories and scenes set to unfold.

The GC race will pit last year's runner up Froome, against former winner Alberto Contador, back after a doping suspension from what he claimed was beef tainted with clenbeuterol. Last year's winner, Bradley Wiggins, has been hampered by injuries and illness and won't be competing. Froome is supported by Richie Porte, who could make his own bid for the podium if Froome falters. Also contending is Radio Shack's Andy Schleck, who was declared a winner after Contador was stripped of one of his titles. Schleck seems large off form this year, perhaps due to the loss of older brother Frank who is sitting out this year due to a doping suspension.

Outside contenders like Pierre Rollands who has twice finished in the top 10, and American Tejay Van Garderen who won the white jersey last year will be looking to improve on their finishes. Canada's Ryder Hesjedahl - winner of the Giro d'Italia last year - will lead Garmin, but his attempt to repeat at the Giro this year was hampered by illness and it's not clear he's in peak form.

But the sprinters are sure to provide some excitement. Cavendish has been the top sprinter for some time, but expect some challenges this year from Peter Sagan who is especially strong with an uphill finish before the sprint. Greipel will also be looking to start the race strong and Cav sometimes is a slow starter for the Tour. The race starts with a sprint this year, so the first sprinter to make a statement should also get the first yellow jersey.

I am super excited about this edition of the tour. It's a pity that Bradley Wiggins won't be able to defend his title. It will be interesting to see how Chris Froome answers to all the expectations that have been created around him. I am looking forward for the duel between Cavendish and Sagan. Can't wait!

The Tour often starts off a little wacky and this week is no different. Buses stuck on the finish line, changing finish lines, surprise winners and once again a dog in the mix. Froome even rode into a curb and needed a bike change in the neutral zone on the first day!

But heartbreak for Ted King who was injured in the crash on day 1, and now is cut by 7 seconds on the TTT. Apparently they appealed because of problems with measuring his time, but the appeal was turned down. Maybe it's just as well that he isn't risking further injury, but how disappointing for him.

I forgot to check in with the FSU TDF thread! Before the race my dad was like "aren't you excited that Cav has a chance for the yellow jersey?" and I responded "It's the first sprint of the Tour. He'll probably just crash."

Oops.

I haven't figured out who I'm rooting for in the GC this year. I would normally root for Andy Schleck but I think that's a little premature. Right now I'm rooting for him just to have a solid race. And I always root for Tejay but he's not the leader of BMC right now. So I'm not that emotionally attached to any of the main contenders. Maybe I'll root for Alberto just to be contrary.

Any idea why Farrar was left of the Garmin-Sharp team? Were they just trying to focus the team around Hesjedal? (Oh! Maybe that's who I'll root for!)

I feel so bad for Tony Martin. That's just an awful way to start the tour. In any other sport, he'd have been completely forbidden from participating after that concussion. Cyclists are pretty insane.

I'm also pretty grumpy that Cav hasn't loudly blamed Greipel for crashing Tony Martin on stage 1. Sure, he complained about the race jury (the most popular group in the world right now) for neutralizing the time but not the points (about which he is probably right) but it's just not the same.

It's true that the landscapes are stunning but is it really necessary to show so much of it when there are key things happening on the road? Yesterday, many important cyclists fell, Mark Cavendish and Joaquin Rodriguez are just an exemple, and we didn't get to see it. I don't say this because of any sadistic wish to see crashes and people getting hurt but because it is important to understand the race and realize why some riders lost contact with the bunch and so on...

It's true that the landscapes are stunning but is it really necessary to show so much of it when there are key things happening on the road? Yesterday, many important cyclists fell, Mark Cavendish and Joaquin Rodriguez are just an exemple, and we didn't get to see it. I don't say this because of any sadistic wish to see crashes and people getting hurt but because it is important to understand the race and realize why some riders lost contact with the bunch and so on...

Click to expand...

I think The issue is that there are a finite number of cameras/cameramen and they simply cannot be everywhere. Sometimes they get the crashes and sometimes they don't.

Off course they can't have a camera to follow around every single rider but in other editions of the tour (in my opinion) the broadcast was better. Even if they didn't caught it "on the moment" they would mention it. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of stages to go and hopefully it will get better
In what concerns Rodriguez, I found out about his crash on twitter.

So... the one day classic that we are now calling the Tour de France was great! Can't wait for next year!

Okay, it's not over until it's over but, realistically, they will have to crack Chris Froome to make this a race again. The gaps on this stage are not a matter of "attack and get a few KM ahead". Contador at 1:45 could do it if everything fell right, but I don't think anyone else will be able to do it unless Froome completely cracks on a mountain. And that seems rather unlikely.

13 wasn&#8217;t a lucky number for Movistar&#8230; What a terrible day for this team that was having a good TdF so far and lost so much today. Alejandro Valverde, who was second in the general classification, had a problem in his back wheel. At that moment, Movistar had pretty much all their riders in the leading bunch. Due to Valverde&#8217;s stop, most of his team mates immediately had to stay behind to help him. Rui Costa and Nairo Quintana first stayed in the lead bunch. Plaza and Castroviejo were giving it all to help Valverde but it didn&#8217;t work. Omega was imposing an amazing rhythm in the front of the bunch and was quickly helped by Belkin and Europcar. Belkin attacked to prevent Valverde to rejoin, hoping that Mollema and Ten Dam could improve their placement at the general classification. What happened next left a few people stunned: instead of hoping to maintain Quintana and Rui Costa in the leading bunch, the team director ordered Costa to wait for Valverde when he was losing time. Belkin kept on helping Omega imposing an impossible rhythm for the Movistar riders to rejoin. Then the Movistar riders were told to wait to be integrated in the chasing bunch, certainly hoping for some help from Argos due to the fact that Kittel was in that group and had to recover if he had any thoughts of trying to win this stage. Argos helped for some time but as soon as it became more than clear that it was practically impossible to rejoin the lead bunch they let go. In result, Valverde dropped from 2nd to 16th (12&#8217;10&#8217;&#8217, Costa dropped from 9th to 18th (14&#8217;22&#8217, Rojas lost the chance to try the spring at the end, and in the overall team classification Movistar dropped from 1st to 5th. Very bad day for Movistar.
There was also some irony in what happened to Europcar. This team helped Omega and Belkin in the 1st bunch to break the others (Belkin wanted to leave Movistar behind, Omega wanted to get rid of Argos and Cannondale). Then Pierre Rolland had the exact same problem as Valverde in his back wheel and it became difficult for him to try to regroup. Europcar were a victim of their own strategy.
Saxo-Tinkoff were patient and attacked at the right time and Christopher Froome was left in trouble since Sky couldn&#8217;t keep up with Saxo. Contador benefited from this situation and reduced the disadvantage in the general classification. Kreuziger also did great and improved his placing to 4th.
And what about Mark Cavendish? Well, this must have been a difficult week for him. He got an awful lot of hate after using his shoulder to gain position on Tom Veelers (he crashed as a consequence) in one of the previous stages. There was a debate whether Cav had done it on purpose or not. I don&#8217;t think his move was illegal cause he did not cut Veelers trajectory but many claim it was unethical to use his shoulder on Veelers the way he did. Cav lost that day and also had to deal with some journalists questions about his &#8220;responsability&#8221; on Veelers crash. As result, Cav took a journalist gramophone just to return it latter. His facebook page was flooded with insults and during the TT someone threw him a bottle of urine. He also had to deal with some booing. So his victory on stage 13 must have felt like heaven after such a difficult time.
I honestly cannot understand why someone would even think of throwing a bottle full of urine at someone. What a terrible thing to do&#8230;
Poor Christopher Froome looked a bit worried on the podium today. I don&#8217;t doubt his capacity but one has to wonder how Sky will protect him in the future stages, considering that Kirienka is out and Boasson Hagen had to withdrew because he broke his shoulder.